Interloper
by Zodiac Sefirosu
Summary: Post AC. Cloud is sent to deliver a mysterious package on Halloween day and runs into much more than he bargained for. Rated M for a lot of blood, violence, and creepiness.


Here it is, my Halloween fanfic! You should not read this if you have a weak stomach when it comes to blood or like stories where the hero always prevails. The only character that's mine is Seph. (Not Sephiroth)

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The young, blond-haired man known as Cloud Strife sighed, not feeling up to delivering packages after everything that happened in the ruins of Midgar. A few weeks had passed since Kadaj had used Jenova's head to transform into Sephiroth, the former General having been killed by Cloud yet again soon after. Now, the air had gained a slight chill, just enough to bite through your clothes, and the leaves on the trees are turning golden and scarlet and are falling to the ground, the skeletal frames of the trees they left behind reaching up to the sky like the bony fingers of the damned. The favored children's holiday known as Halloween fell on this day.

Cloud looked curiously at the last package he had to deliver for the day, his gravity-defying hair whipping in the wind around his motorcycle, Fenrir. It was in a worn cardboard box and it was heavy, but other than that, he knew nothing about it other than it was fragile according to the sticker on the top. After he delivered this, he would go back to Tifa's bar to help Marlene and Denzel prepare their Halloween costumes, a moogle and tonberry respectively, and to watch over them as they went trick-or-treating. He chuckled lightly, remembering Tifa's teasing suggestion that he should dress up as a father chocobo to go with them.

Eventually, the false SOLDIER drove up to a dilapidated house that looked like it was at least a century old. Cloud looked up at the huge, five-story structure and quickly checked the address on the package to make sure he had the right house. The abode looked like it was about to collapse at any second, in fact, it looked like several rooms already had. Black, peeling paint, gothic-looking windows, and spires that reached up to stab the sky added to its eeriness.

The golden-haired man reluctantly picked up the box carefully before cautiously walking up the frail porch stairs and knocking on the probably termite-infested door using the blackened brass knocker that was shaped into a lion's head, glaring down at the man with ruby eyes, surprise evident on Cloud's face that the knocker's eyes had not been ripped from their sockets and sold yet. The large, heavy door opened with a loud screech on the third knock and he poked his head in the doorway, expecting to see the person who opened the door and finding no one. "Hello?" He said, his voice echoing slightly through the long, large foyer. It was about twenty feet long and had a staircase at the end, leading to the second floor and perhaps beyond. The only source of light was the open door. "Strife Delivery Service here. I brought a package to whoever lives here."

Curiosity getting the best of him, he walked in, his every footfall causing the worn floorboards to squeak. He set the parcel on a small table beside the entrance and immediately turned back to the door when he heard it slam shut on its own accord. He grabbed the doorknob and jiggled it both ways, each yielding fruitless results. "Tch. Looks like this place is more well-built than it seems." He said in an annoyed voice before ramming his shoulder repeatedly against the door to no avail. _"Why did I come in here without any of my swords?" _He grumbled to himself in his mind.

A large shadow, darker than the void, which had deepened once the door shut, flitting past the side of his vision caught his attention and he froze, listening to any sound the person, or _thing_, might make that would allude Cloud to its identity, but he heard not a single sound. He turned to look down the hallway and saw it dart through a doorway nearly at the end of the foyer. The blond-haired man picked up the package and carefully tucked it under his arm before following the shadow, worry and fear gnawing on the back of his mind, the part he always ignored.

He warily turned to look in the room and let out a soft gasp at the condition of the room. Dust seemed to cover every surface of what looked to be an old ballroom. The majestic chandelier in the center had fallen long ago and crystal shards were still scattered all along the once-grand floor, glittering in the darkness. Cloud spotted a pair of drapes and immediately headed over to them before ripping them open. He widened his eyes at how the clear, yet dust-covered, window seemed to make the sunlight bounce off it instead of letting it stream through. He pressed his palm against it and rubbed it, making sure the dust was not the one causing the strange phenomenon. He looked down at his feet, noting that none of the life-giving light had created a shaft shaped like the window as it normally would.

Cloud turned back to the darkness permeating the room and squinted to try to find the shadow from before or anything else of interest, his mako-tainted eyes glowing slightly. He examined a nearby table and found an ancient, dust-covered tome. He opened it carefully, afraid that the pages would tear out at the slightest tug, and started trying to read it in the gloom surrounding him.

After a few moments of trying to pick out words from the book futilely, the young man started feeling an odd sensation of his head, like he was standing underneath a leaky faucet, except the liquid was warm and felt heavier than water as it dripped onto his golden hair. He reached a slightly shaky hand up past his face and pressed it against the top of his head lightly before bringing it back down. His eyes grew as large as saucers as he stared at the crimson liquid smearing his black glove. He brought it close to his face and sniffed it to confirm what it was, the rust-scented life-blood of an unknown creature…or person. Body now visibly quaking, Cloud slowly lifted his head up to see…nothing. There was nothing different about the patch of ceiling above him than its neighbors, not even a single crack that he could make out. Still shuddering, he let out a shaky sigh before strengthening his grip on the package he still held and leaving the ballroom, unaware of the glowing eyes narrowed at him from a corner of the room, disappearing suddenly into the darkness when he was a few feet away from the doorway.

Cloud looked up at the stairs, the only way left to go now, and widened his eyes in surprise at the large shadow from before sitting at the top, looking down at him tauntingly. "You! Who or what are you and what do you want with me?!" The blond yelled up at it and was met with stoic silence before the thing turned and retreated to the confines of the second floor, the young man following it as quickly as he could while still keeping the parcel tucked under his arm safe.

He reached the top of the staircase and gazed around the circular room he ended up in, shuddering because the candelabra, once hung from the center of the ceiling, doubtless having looked magnificent fully-lit, had somehow been dashed against the wall, looking recent compared to the chandelier downstairs. _"What beast has such massive power to do that and still fit in this house?"_ He said mentally, trembling again, before cautiously going to the door he saw the shadow slip through just as he reached the top of the staircase, making sure to sidestep the ruined candelabra on the way.

Cloud opened the door slowly, struggling because of an unknown force keeping it shut, and was greeted by a gardener's nightmare and a botanist's paradise on the other side. Long, large vines with thorns sprouting from them grew all around the room with a gigantic, black rose, about as big as himself, as the source at the far end of the room. Nightshade of all kinds, monkshood, and foxglove took up the remaining space on the floor, all means of killing someone by poison. He noticed the entire far wall was made of panes of what used to be light-blue glass, similar to that which a greenhouse is composed of, though they were covered completely by grime and dust. The blond carefully picked his way across the room, avoiding the thorny vines on the way to the humongous rose. He then knelt in front of it and lightly ran a hand across the petals curiously, the still-damp blood on his glove being transferred onto the plant.

Cloud froze suddenly, afraid to move a muscle as he felt warm, moist breath ghosting across the skin of the nape of his neck. He nearly gagged, his stomach convulsing as the scent of rotting flesh and fresh blood wafted to his nose on the breath of the creature, a deep, soft chuckle coming from the figure behind him at his disgust. It could have passed as human, had there not been a hint of insanity, and maybe hysteria, buried in the rich baritone.

The blond-headed man took a deep, shaky breath. "W-who are you?" He was almost able to keep the fear out of his voice, but failed as a bit leaked out in his shaky speech. His only response from the creature was a barely noticeable altering of its breath so it fell heavier upon the back of his neck. Cloud shuddered at its predator-like behavior and that only made it chuckle sinisterly yet again. He took another deep breath and gulped audibly to steel his nerves before reaching behind him quickly and yanking what felt like cloth that was around the creature. He brought the torn piece of the fabric up to his face, noting that it was somehow blacker than the darkness that filled every inch of this cursed house and made of something that almost seemed liquid, yet he couldn't identify it. He slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder and saw nothing when there should have been something for the second time that day. He trembled softly at the swiftness and silence this creature used when moving before stuffing the strange cloth in his pocket and leaving the room.

Cloud nearly dropped the parcel he still carried at the scene of carnage in the circular room that wasn't there when he came through before. He threw a hand up to cover his mouth and nose as it looked like some corpses had exploded in the room. Blood was smeared all over the walls, some of the crimson liquid even dripping from the ceiling, and a few organs were scattered here and there each in different stages of decay. He looked over at a wall which the scarlet slime had not touched except for a cloud crudely-drawn on the wall in blood. Several enormous, bear-like claw marks had scored the wood from top to bottom of the childish, yet morbid, drawing. The blond gulped loudly, his mouth going dry and heartbeat accelerating, clearly recognizing the threat against his life. Shaking more than he had thus far, he followed the trail of blood and ascended the stairs, avoiding putting his hand on the blood-drenched handrail, the liquid oozing down the banisters.

A soft humming sound reached his enhanced ears as he got to the top of the stairs, one a child might make while drawing. _"Why the hell is there a kid in here?!"_ Cloud asked himself as he instinctively rushed through the hallway to the room the noise came from.

He gently traced the shape of letters drawn by tiny hands on the door before pushing it open, revealing the room to be an old nursery or children's playroom. Now, spiders had taken over the room, their cobwebs covering the old toys, and the chewed wood on the toy blocks and crib were obviously signs of rats or mice. He looked towards the far end of the room and found the source of the humming, a child finger painting on the wall, occasionally halting his wordless song to talk to an unseen person. Cloud slowly walked towards the child, not wanting to startle it. When he was a few steps away from it, he could tell that the child was wearing a strange, black robe like the creature from before and it had…long, silver hair. He froze and gasped at that detail, causing the child to turn towards him.

The boy looked like a miniature Sephiroth, acid green, cat-like eyes boring into this person intruding upon his playroom. He licked his finger, covered with the scarlet liquid, most likely more blood, he was using to paint a picture of Cloud on the wall before stroking the light blue tentacle plushie on his lap. "She doesn't like you." He informed the blond as he tilted his head at him. "What are you doing here? No one ever comes here anymore."

Cloud shook his head and sucked in a deep breath to steady himself as the words snapped him out of his thoughts. "I came here to deliver a package. It doesn't list the recipient, just the address." He said while showing the child the parcel in his hand.

The little Sephiroth jumped to his feet, wrapping the tentacle plushie around his neck like an anaconda before examining the box like a child would to freshly-bought groceries, hoping to find his favorite treat hidden within the bags. "What do you think's in it?" He asked the stuffed toy around his throat as he shook it gently like a kid trying to figure out what is in a present before unwrapping it.

"H-hey!" The older man exclaimed as he yanked the package out of the child's hands, having to use all of his strength to do so. "This is fragile! You have to be careful with it or you'll break it. It probably isn't even yours anyway."

The boy stuck his tongue out at him. "Probably not, but children are curious. You can't blame me for wanting to look." He walked back to the wall and plopped down on the floor before dipping his finger in a puddle of blood on the floor and going back to painting on the wall.

The delivery boy sighed at the child. "Why are you drawing me on the wall with blood, and what's your name anyway?" He asked, nearly gagging at the sight of the morbid drawing.

The silver-haired boy scooted around to face him and licked his finger clean again. "For your first question, I know who comes into this house and I like to draw them. Not much else to do around here. In fact, you're the first person who's made it all the way to me. As for your second question, you can call me Seph."

"S-S-Seph?" Cloud stuttered out of fear, seeing a clear resemblance between the child's and his enemy's name.

Seph waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Psh. Ignore my name. I act exactly the opposite of how Sephiroth normally acts right now."

"Y-you know him?" He continued in the fearful voice.

He grinned up at him. "Oh, I more than know him. I'm a part of him. Think of me as the roots holding and protecting the mighty tree known as Sephiroth." He let out a soft chuckle, which soon grew into full-blown, almost-maniacal laughter as he stroked the tentacle plushie again. The tip of it wrapped around his fingers like a living vine before he stepped back and faded into the darkness of the room, his laughter echoing for a few seconds after his departure.

Cloud let out a shaky breath and hugged himself as much as he could while his whole body quaked out of fear of knowing that at least a part of his old enemy had come back yet again. "I-it's okay, Cloud." He mumbled to himself, futilely trying to banish his fear. "It's just this stupid house making your mind see things is all." The bloody drawing that was still on the wall, the non-dried parts beginning to run down the surface, put holes straight through his theory, serving only to demoralize him more. Right before his eyes, claw marks slowly formed in the wood where the drawing's face was. He turned tail and ran out of the room, resisting the urge to scream out of fear as the sound of wood being gouged into and childish, insane laughter flared up from the room he just left.

Cloud doubled over and braced his free hand on his knee as he panted once he got to the staircase, the laughter still being able to be heard slightly. He lifted his face to look up to the next floor and the copper scent of spilled blood and more putrid body tissue flowed down to him in waves. He wrinkled his nose before he looked back the way he came. The childish sounds of insane mirth and the loud noise of wood being scraped into were getting closer by the second. The blond gulped loudly and took a deep breath before plunging into what he thought would be the lesser of the two, blood-soaked evils.

He quickly regretted his decision once he got to the top of the stairs. He fell to his hands and knees and barely resisted the urge to vomit as the stench of blood, both old and fresh, and decaying flesh, in the same state as the liquid that once circulated through it, nearly overpowered him completely. A few deep breaths through the mouth helped to settle his flipping stomach enough so he was sure he wouldn't puke before he slowly lifted his head to stare at the room turned slaughterhouse.

Bloodied, mutilated human corpses, most dismembered in one way or another, hung from the ceiling by silver thread, thin, but strong, that glowed slightly in the darkness. Some of the ceilings boards were weaker than the strings, the wood bending down from above due to their macabre load. Several dripping sounds were constantly being heard at once from the blood oozing from the dead bodies. He looked down and noticed an intricate system of small tubes cut in half, all leading to a large pool in the center of the room where the crimson life-force flowed together. A look back up showed that the corpses hung strategically above the complicated, grid-like system so the blood dripped into the tubes and was collected in the center of the room.

"Do you like our little farm?"

Cloud turned his head back to look at the silver-haired child which had snuck up on him. "F-farm?" He asked, nearly heaving again at the term used to describe this twisted room.

"Mm-hmm." The boy hummed in reply cheerfully as he strode to the pool of blood. He squatted down next to it and dipped a finger in before sticking it in his mouth. "Mmm." He purred while smacking his lips together. "Needs to clot a little more, though." He turned back to Cloud. "You want some?"

He shuddered. "Ah, no thanks. You said 'our' farm. Please don't tell me this is-"

Seph nodded while grinning. "Yep. Sephiroth's handiwork."

Cloud sighed, knowing and fearing the answer before it was given. Considering the freshness of some of the corpses, his nemesis must be out there somewhere, at this very moment. _"At least I now know where the kid got his 'paint'."_ He muttered to himself mentally as he got to his feet while picking up the package.

"You can go up to the next floor if you want. In fact," He cocked his head, ear pointing up to the ceiling, "I think you should. Even I normally don't go up there."

"And why should I?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Don't you feel it? A force willing you to go up?"

Now that the kid mentioned it, Cloud could feel a dull, fuzzy sensation in the back of his head. It was as though an enormous force was egging him on to go upstairs. He rubbed the back of his head and winced as the feeling grew stronger. "Y-yeah."

"Then go on up." Seph said, jerking his head in the direction of the staircase. "It'll make that feeling go away."

He nodded, clutching his forehead now, as he stumbled over to the staircase. He looked up the stairwell, noting that the darkness seemed to thicken even more like black velvet, before making his ascent.

This floor was in a surprisingly good condition compared to the other ones. A black, unoccupied bed with a sheer dark curtain surrounding it was against the far wall and not a speck of blood was to be seen within the room. New, coal-colored paint covered the wooden boards on the walls that seemed new, quite unlike the peeling paint and torn boards that covered the rest of this creepy house.

Cloud noticed that the darkness covering the room like a dense mist seemed to be alive. It felt like it wanted to draw him further into the room, yet at the same time, shove him out like a barrier would. He decided to obey the former wanting of it, happily noting that his headache died down the farther he went into the room. The blond drew back the curtain around the bed a bit before sitting down on the edge, sighing blissfully at the softness of the mattress. "I don't know who used to live here, but they had good tastes, whoever they were." He muttered cheerfully as he ran a hand along the silk sheets.

Suddenly, he felt as though someone was running long fingers down his back, his flesh shivering and the hair on his neck and arms standing on end at the ghostly touch. A burning sensation ran down his back in searing trails, following the fingers' path. He looked behind him and saw nothing, though he thought he heard a soft chuckle and the sheets rustling. The blond sighed and shook his head before reaching a hand through the back of the collar of his shirt. "More blood." He muttered after he pulled his crimson-smeared hand away from his back, swearing he heard another chuckle at his comment.

After a few seconds, something shoved Cloud off the bed and face-first into a wall, the scratches on his back stinging in protest to the pressure they received. He managed to look over his shoulder enough to see the creature he was pursuing before he found Seph, his face soon being slammed back into the wall by it. "W-who are you?" He managed to ask in a muffled voice. Yet another soft chuckle met his question before he was flipped over and his back was slammed against the wall, his body wincing as his wounds rubbed against the fabric of his clothes, before lifting his head up to look at his captor.

Its gloved hands curled around the rim of the hood shrouding its face in shadow before pulling it back.

Cloud gasped.

Standing in front of the blond was none other than his nemesis. Sephiroth cocked his head to a side, long, silver hair following his head's movement fluidly with his signature smirk on his face. "Were you not expecting me?" He asked in his usual smooth baritone.

The blond-haired man shook his head fearfully, body visibly shaking slightly, as thoughts ran through his mind of how this monster could have possibly come back yet again before he was aware of another presence in his mind, rummaging through his thoughts like they were merely food in a cupboard. "Get out of my head!" He screamed at the former general while clutching his head with arms the silver-haired man had just released.

"Stop acting as though you feel pain." He said cold-heartedly as he slammed him down onto the floor, face smacking against the boards.

Cloud pushed himself off the floor on shaky arms and looked at the red drops appearing on the floor directly under his face. His tongue darted out of his mouth and licked at his own lips. He winced mentally as the flavor of rust sprouted on his tongue. _"Great. The last thing I needed was a broken nose." _He got to his feet only to be slammed face-first into one of the bed posts.

"Ah-ah-ah." Sephiroth said in a condescending way as though he were scolding a child. "You are _not _going to go anywhere after all the trouble you have caused me over the years."

The blond managed to get in a sitting position from where he slid down onto the floor. "Well, what do you want from me?" He asked while rubbing his abused face.

The ex-general sighed as he took slow, deliberate steps behind Cloud. "I see that you are as dull as ever. I basically want to be repaid for all of my time you wasted over these _delightful _years."

"How do you suppose I do-" He was cut off by his nerves in his spine sending an electrical current of pain up his back. He tried to reach a hand back to rub the area Sephiroth just kicked with his boot, but his right arm was yanked straight back, nearly being dislocated, before his silver-haired tormentor placed a boot between his shoulder blades, helping to increase the force he placed on his arm. A scream of agony tore through Cloud's throat as his limb was dislocated due to the superhuman force pulling it from its socket. Another scream was ripped from his throat when Sephiroth slowly pulled his arm until it snapped past his elbow the wrong way with a sickening crack.

The former SOLDIER grinned sadistically at the sounds of pain before letting him go. "That is how I expect you to pay me back."

Cloud whimpered in sharp pain and looked up at his captor pleadingly as he cradled his broken arm with his good one. He was suddenly knocked to the ground, screaming again as the punch to his head caused him to land on his shattered arm. He watched the silver-haired man walk to the bed with long strides through half-closed eyes in pain from his place on the floor.

"No wonder you did not make it into SOLDIER." The blond heard the silver-haired man say as he heard the sound of a box being torn open and glass clinking together. He saw Sephiroth turning away from the package he left on the side of the bed and him kneeling down in front of him with a glass bottle in his hand. He managed to read the word 'elixir' on the label of the bottle of bright green liquid as he uncorked it and was moving it to the younger man's lips before he finally passed out from the pain.

"That jerk." Tifa Lockhart muttered while following her two adopted children as they merrily made their way down the streets, knocking at each house that looked promising. She had to help the kids get ready to go trick-or-treating when Cloud had failed to show up. She ran a hand through her shoulder-length, black hair. _"Still," _She thought worriedly, _"It's not like him to just not show up, especially when it's for his friends."_

Before the woman could continue her worried thoughts, she saw an imposing, yet dilapidated house at the end of the street. "Wow. Someone went crazy for Halloween. Say, why don't you two go on ahead to that house and I'll catch up with you?"

"Okay!" The children said happily at the same time before rushing down the sidewalk, trying to be the first to get to the house. The female of the group, Marlene, immediately started to lag behind out of fear the closer they got to the intimidating house.

"Denzel," She said in a fearful voice to the boy in front of her who had also started to slow down, "Are you sure we should be going to this house? It's just a few pieces of candy."

"C-come on, Marlene. Stop being such a scaredy-cat." He told her, just barely letting a bit of his fear out in his voice. "It's just a house that someone decorated for Halloween. There's nothing to be scared of." The brown-haired boy said as he stood stock-still on the sidewalk in front of the house, staring up at the black, peeling paint coating the walls and the grimy windows, reluctant to go any nearer to it. Unfortunately for him, the girl behind him would have nothing of it and pushed him towards the person sitting on the porch that was falling apart. The person was wearing a black-as-night cloak that hid his face and had a bowl on his lap. As he was shoved closer to the cloaked individual, he became aware of a very realistic corpse hanging from the overhang of the porch by the neck. Practically the only thing he could make out on the body was some blond hair and the occasional black scrap of clothing, the rest was coated in blood and the occasional stab wound.

"Hm," The cloaked person, identified as male due to his deep voice thought aloud, "You two are the first to have the guts to actually come here. I think that calls for a couple of special treats." He beckoned the children closer with his hand, which they eagerly did at the mention of treats, before digging around in the bowl. He brought out a badge of a silver wolf head for the boy and a pink ribbon for the girl. "Now, go on, you two. Whoever takes care of you is probably worried about you." He watched the girl dressed as a fluffy, white moogle walk away, her pom-pom bobbing on the wire attached to her forehead while the boy looking like the odd creature known as the Tonberry stayed behind, lantern dangling from his fingers. "Yes, child? What is it?"

Denzel fidgeted slightly before finding the courage to talk to the strange man. "Um, just wanted to tell you that your decorations are very realistic." He said, pointing to the fake corpse that hung from the overhang.

"Why, thank you, child. Now, run along before your friend drags you back." He watched the boy run to catch up with the other child before looking up to the corpse to ponder what he said. After all of the tortures and healing, there was so much blood on the body to prove it unrecognizable to even its closest friends. _"And that is just what I wanted to happen."_ The cloaked person's acid green, cat-like eyes locked on a strand of hair that had blown off the corpse and slowly floated to the ground. A soft, deep chuckle came from the person, steadily growing in volume as the lone lock of golden, spiky hair forlornly fell onto the ground.


End file.
